Tag Archives: aboriginal men

We did Connect; found leads and links to Create, and finally were given some tips on taking up the essential Challenge! SLAQ2012 was in town!

Attending a conference is inspirational and motivational!! There’s always so much to think about. Though one does need to choose just a few of the new things encountered to ‘take on-board’. Now to take action! On the first day the indigenous speakers (Boori & Willi) have made me feel there are certainly some quiet aboriginal men who believe that all Australian children need to know the indigenous stories connected to the land so we all value it! They are finding ways to achieve that goal.

The keynote by JennyLuca was certainly a call to ‘know your core business’. The new Australian curriculum has many opportunities to extend children’s information literacy . . . and to get them on-line writing and interacting and creating. We teachers need to experience what is out there (digitally) and move with the times. She gave some examples of software and apps being used in schools. I investigated Storify as a place to collect tweets from a conference such as this one. So I did it!! You’ll find my collection of Tweets etc in my Storify site – http://storify.com/CareyLeahy/slaq2012. I’ve also uploaded photos taken over the 4 days to Flickr (SLAQ2012), and added a couple more capable TLs/Techs to my PLN (and twitter groups like #VicPLN).

Lyn Hay’s keynote address reiterated these ideas and suggested we should try to ‘Thrive rather than just Survive’. We need to know our core business and be visible. If we could choose 3 of the suggestions put forward and work to make them happen – she’d feel successful. Later in a session she gave some practical examples of where evidence of the TLs work could be recorded/documented. We need this to show our worth! Noted that the Joyce/Buffy folk follow the ‘quick and dirty’ technique of getting the information into digital format and archived that day. Don’t make a big deal of it – just do it! The complete SlideShare will be available on the SLAQ site to members.

Mandy Lupton showed some of the deficiencies in the Australian curriculum especially associated with information literacy acquition. She suggested that much of the research we ask students to complete is ‘re-search’ – the finding of facts already known. Instead, we should be expecting inquiry-based learning where current, relevant questions are asked, answered and presented in a way to demonstrate info literacy (IL) – and may lead to even more questions. KWHLAQ will expand the old KWL to include the final Actions and then new Questions. These are the ideal skill requirements of future citizens. We should be considering Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) as the best approach to achieve critical thinking skills and IL aswell. Mandy has also investigated the Australian Curriculum and found some places where these IL skills/processes were not evident in the current curriculum content and requirements. She will be worth watching for the Blog she is planning to begin in the near future.

My goals will be to go back to the Australian Curriculum and know it well for my primary students (especially the General Capabilities) and to continue to expand my personal digital literacy skills and PLN and also to engage students in an appropriate digital environment.